heeeere birdy birdy birdy

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The tally so far...

hostels/hotels: 6 ... with hot showers: 2/6
plane rides: 3
long haul bus trips: 4
long haul train rides: 1
dorm rooms shared with chronic snorers: 1
injuries: 1
rainy days: 0
weather under 30 degrees: 2 days

We really enjoyed Puerto Iguacu, but time is short and we must fast track back through Brazil and across to Bolivia since Brazil is totally blowing our budget. But first its back across the border. It was easy enough to get on the bus to get to the ´frontera´, but getting through is a total pain. The bus from the Argentinian side waited for us at the Argentinian border which was nice. But then he dumped us off at the Brazilian border and left so we had to get our entry stamp and then sit on the ground for a while waiting for the next bus, yay.

Finally made it and managed to catch a local bus and find our next hostel.. Hostal Bambu in Foz do Iguazu. We decided to stay a few nights here as the description on the hostel booking website sounded cool. Turned out to be a good choice of place to stay. The dorm room had working air-con, the place was clean and their pool and bar area was great. We were pretty short on our allowance for this week so we mostly stayed around the hostel. You can´t really go wrong when its a choice of reading/sleeping in a hammock by the pool and/or swimming or drinking beers. The place was fun at night too since we had a super cool bartender called Eddie who ran the show. He called the happy hour whenever he felt like it each night, 2 caprihinas (really strong cocktails) for 7 Reals which is a mere AUD $4.30. So we got pretty happy on those and beer and met a whole bunch of new friends for the night. Its getting a bit strange making friends that are so damn temporary!

So we were thinking of seeing Iguacu Falls from the Brazilian side but decided to can that idea since we couldn´t afford it and had already been blown away by the beauty of the Argentinian side. We chose to go to the Bird Park instead. Braved a local bus to get there. The buses here are pretty easy. Each route has a set fare which is stated on a sign by the lady who hands out the tickets. We are still learning how to say numbers in Spanish so that made it heaps easier for us.

The bird park was quite fun, so many beautiful and amazing birds. The toucans were our faves. They really have neat little personalities and were the most friendly and totally not scared to come near us. The first toucan we saw was practically sitting there waiting for us as we walked into the aviary. He even let us have a little pat and take photos. The second toucan we met promptly jumped off his branch and went for Aaron and gave him a few little love bites on his arm. Another toucan followed us through the aviary, jumping along the fencing and chasing us. Gorgeous birds! Their colours are so far out they really look like imaginary creatures.

The other standout bit of the park was the butterfly aviary. The butterflies here just blow me away their colours are amazing and some of them are as big as saucers. They also had hummingbirds there, we´ve only ever seen them on TV! They flew so fast you could barely see them and when they stopped you could see that their feathers were gorgeous metallic green and blue. They were so quick I only managed to get 1 photo.

Just as we were nearing the end of the bird park we came across a macaw with one of the staff members. He was a gorgeous, massive bird. Coloured bright blue and yellow, never seen one that close up before. The lady promptly grabbed us and got each of us to put our arm out. He was well behaved while sitting on Aaron but when he jumped onto me he ran straight up my arm and stole my hair tie. Then he had a tanty when his handler grabbed him and made him spit it out.

Thats about all we have to report for Foz do Iguazu. The bird park and a couple of nights on the booze. We were going to travel to the Pantanal, a wetland area near the Bolivian border. But since Brazil has busted our budget, we are skipping that bit and heading straight to Bolivia. So we left Foz and caught another local bus to the ´rodoviaria´(bus station). From there we caught yet another long haul night bus up to Campo Grande (15 hours). We arrived there around 7am so quickly bought tickets and boarded the next bus straight to Corumba (8 hours).

The hostel in Corumba was rather average. The owners spoke zero english so we coudn´t get any travel advice from them. There were only about other people staying there but they were out all the time. Our room was rather expensive for what it was. We only stayed there one night luckily. It was an eventful night though. In the middle of the night I woke up for some reason and then realised there was a noise in the corner of the room. I freaked thinking it was a rat and jumped up standing on the bed like a big girl and let Aaron turn the light on and deal with it. It was actually a poor little bird, totally scared off its head wondering where it was. We think it must have come in through the bathroom window somehow. It looked something like a kiwi, but much smaller. We chucked a tshirt over its head and carefully put it outside. Poor little guy!

We checked out early the next morning and made our way to the bus stop to head to yet another fronteira. The local bus was packed to the gills. In South America they have about 20 seat on the bus, the rest is standing. I read a sign on one bus that said 20 seated, 63 standing.. just to give you an idea of how many people they jam in. We got on there, sweltering hot, carrying our massive backpacks plus our smaller day pack each. We paid the fare and fought to stand for the 15 minute trip as they packed on more and more passengers. What a nightmare. Anyway, we made it to the border.. stay posted for the next update.. Bolivia!

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